This publication is the first of an annual series that provides a window into the movers and shakers of the Muslim world. It highlights people who are influential as Muslims, that is, people whose influence is derived from their practice of Islam or from the fact that they are Muslim. It gives valuable insight into the different ways that Muslims impact the world, and also shows the diversity of how people are living as Muslims today.
English Publications
New: The 500 Most Influential Muslims
A Common Word Between Us and You
A Common Word was launched on October 13th 2007 as an open letter signed by 138 leading Muslim scholars and intellectuals to the leaders of the Christian Churches and denominations all over the world, including H.H. Pope Benedict XVI. In essence, it proposes that Islam and Christianity share at their core, the twin “golden” commandments of the paramount importance of loving God and loving the neighbor. Based on this joint common ground, it is presented here as an interfaith theological document which calls for peace and harmony between Christians and Muslims worldwide.
The Amman Message
The Amman Message started as a detailed statement released the eve of the 27th of Ramadan 1425 AH/9th November 2004 CE by H.M. King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein in Amman, Jordan. It declares what Islam is and what it is not, and what actions represent it and what actions do not. In total, over 500 leading Muslim scholars worldwide—as can be seen from the Grand List included in this publication—unanimously endorse the Amman Message and its Three Points. This amounts to a historical, universal and unanimous religious and political consensus (ijma ’) of the Ummah (religious community) of Islam in our day, and a consolidation of traditional, orthodox Islam.
Body Count
This publication quantifies the human death toll of religious and political violence throughout the last two millennia and relates these to religio-cultural civilizations.
Forty Hadith on Divine Mercy
The Messenger of God said, “Whosoever commits to memory for my ummah (religious community) forty traditions concerning religion will be resurrected by God in the company of the jurists and the learned.” The learned scholars of Islam have composed books of forty traditions on a wide range of themes, such as jihad (struggle), comportment (adab), or the sacred sayings (hadith qudsi, or words of the Prophet which quote God speaking, but are not part of the Quran and are not wahy or revelation). In a humble effort to be faithful to this tradition of collecting and publishing forty traditions of the Prophet, this book takes as its theme the subject of divine mercy, which comes from God and manifests in His Prophet and His religion.
Jihad and the Islamic Law of War
This text explains what jihad is, what it means to Muslims, and how it relates to the concrete issues of war and peace. It explores the most important issues surrounding the Islamic law of war and peace, and lays out the mainstream, traditional Islamic position, comprised of three essential principles on the legitimacy of non-combatants, religion as a cause for war, and the justification for aggression and the use of force.